


Hot Milk and Memories

by ShatteredSwallowtail



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 14:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20547671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShatteredSwallowtail/pseuds/ShatteredSwallowtail





	Hot Milk and Memories

Yawning, Yoruichi stretched slim arms overhead, arching her back and folding those same arms behind her with a contented sigh. It wasn't often that she found herself in these sorts of situations, for once sitting still and just relaxing. It wasn't generally in her nature, the staying and the stability. She was too much like the wind, capricious and flirtatious, always on the move and never settling. It was probably why she and Kisuke had always been so close, always been so well-connected. He understood her, the same way that she understood him.

Yellow eyes flickered to the side as the clack of wood against tile heralded the approach of said person as he settled himself down on the tiles beside her, handing her a steaming mug -- warm milk, not tea. He knew her well enough by now -- before settling back with elbows resting on his knees, familiar bucket hat on his head.

She pulled herself up to sit beside him, sipping slowly at the heated beverage. Nights like these happened less now than they once had, long before they'd made this place for themselves, but at the same time, they were deeper somehow, more meaningful. Maybe because there was so much more weight on their shoulders. On Kisuke's shoulders, to be exact, not that she'd have ever told him that. Really, the man brooded entirely too much sometimes.

Which was precisely what she told him, with a light punch to the side of his shoulder. It wasn't his fault, regardless of how much she knew he always chose to blame himself for it. To blame himself that he hadn't seen it coming, hadn't been able to predict it. That his curiosity had lead him, like a moth to a flame, through those winding and treacherous pathways into valleys of forbidden fruit. And rather than turn away, shielding his eyes from the seductive glow, he had stepped forward. Bitten deep into the taboo fruits held there, and tasted deeply. And the taste had become a poison, trapping and ensnaring him within his claws, and he'd been blind as those same claws reached out to tear through those close to him. Those he called "friend".

That was the reason he blamed himself, placing all responsibility on his own shoulders. Not just for Hirako and the others; the ones he hadn't been able to save. Their lives... had been torn apart, inexorably changed forever, and despite the fact that they never seemed to hate him for it, never blamed him, it still didn't change the fact that they kept their distance. As though contact with him only served to remind of what they'd lost. It probably did, she couldn't deny that they'd ALL lost a great deal in their frenzied flight from Soul Society. But... she'd never blamed Kisuke for that. Regardless of the number of times she'd argued with herself that it was all his damned fault for being so damned curious. Because while that was true, it didn't change the fact that he, like all of them, had been deceived. Deceived by someone with perhaps an even more cunning intellect than his own, and for the simple reason that for all his cunning, Kisuke lacked the guile that Aizen possessed.

He simply hadn't taken into account, that someone would have used the fruits of his forbidden research in the way that the former fifth division captain had. And now here they were. So far from anything they might have expected, and yet even so things weren't different. Smirking to herself, she rested her head against Kisuke's shoulder in a perhaps unusual display of affection, reaching over to bump the side of her mug against his with a slight smile. After all, when you really got down to it, what was different? Sure, they had the war to consider, and all of the myriad other things spinning around them right now, but really... things hadn't changed all that much. They walked through every day the same as always, and at the end of the day, they were simply another day older. Just like before.


End file.
